Harmonization of the Czech Republic trade policy with the European union trade policy

This article analyses changes in the structure of foreign trade and tariff changes during the process of transformation and pre-EU accession period. Special attention is given to a comparison of Czech and German foreign trade structure. Germany has become the main trading partner of the Czech Republic. To demonstrate the process of trade liberalization in the pre-EU accession period, development trends of nominal tariffs were calculated. Also, experimental calculations of the effective rate of protection were made, and the future impact of tariff changes on comparative advantage after joining the EU was examined. This was done using German tariffs, as representatives of the harmonized EU tariffs. By calculating the revealed comparative advantage indices (Balassa), the ranking of 62 sectors of German and Czech foreign trade was compared and analyzed. As a result, some signals for the future trade policy are derived.

Keywords: trade liberalization, international cooperation, tariff structure changes, revealed comparative advantage